Heritage on Wheels on right track

The luxury train that links Rajasthan's rich heritage sites, is drawing more and more tourists.

The Heritage on Wheels, the luxury train that links Rajasthan's rich heritage sites, is drawing more and more tourists, thanks to effective publicity in the country and abroad.

Launched in February, the three nights and four days tour aboard the train begins from Jaipur and covers Bikaner, Haat, Gajner, Tal Chhapar, Ramgarh, Nawalgarh and Mandawa before returning to the Rajasthan capital.

"There is no doubt that the train is becoming popular. We have been able to finalise as many as 900 bookings out of 1,300 queries we received. This figure is going up daily," said Rakesh Saini, managing director of Rajasthan Tourism Development Corp (RTDC). "The response is especially good from France."

RTDC has been using various campaigns to promote the train. This includes a 15-minute advertisement film, which shows the interiors of the train along with its journey to various destinations.

"The publicity has attracted several tourists," Saini said.

The metre-gauge train, run jointly by RTDC and Indian Railways, is now carrying 35-40 tourists on a single trip.

"We are now looking forward to market our train to corporates and working on a package," the official said.

Single occupancy on the train for three nights comes in for $900, double occupancy per person for $600 while triple occupancy per person comes for $450.

The RTDC has now decided to hire marketing agents in other states of the country for which big tour operators and travel agents have been contacted.

Over a million foreign and 20 million domestic tourists visit Rajasthan last year.